Star Trek: Voyager began life in 1995 with some truly fascinating prospects in its two-hour pilot episode. Opening in the 24th century, a setting contemporary with that of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and carrying over story elements from each of those series, "Caretaker" finds Starfleet Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) stepping into the middle of Federation troubles with the Maquis, an army of rebels violently resisting the interplanetary organization's treaty with the brutal Cardassians. In the process, both Voyager and the Maquis ship under surveillance are accidentally catapulted out of the galaxy's Alpha Quadrant (the familiar stomping grounds of Starfleet personnel) by a benign but dying being called the Caretaker. Voyager ends up in the unexplored Delta Quadrant, some 70,000 light years away.

So much seemed dramatically promising in this debut, especially the unwieldy alliance of Starfleet regulars and hostile Maquis, and the likelihood that a lifetime spent in isolation, trying to get home, would lead to the development of a self-contained society on the ship, yet Voyager never entirely made up its mind what it was supposed to be about. The curiously cheesy sets and fascinating, progressive management style of Janeway (half mommy, half taskmaster) were also new developments in Star Trek culture. As the 16-episode season continued, character backstories were developed in such episodes as "The Cloud" (arguably the best episode of the season), "Eye of the Needle" (underscoring Janeway and the crew's sadness), "State of Flux" (in which a search for a traitor reveals a past romance between Commander Chakotay, played by Robert Beltran, and sexy Bajoran engineer Seska, played by Martha Hackett), and "Jetrel" (which explores the character of Neelix, the Talaxian played by Ethan Phillips, during a parable about scientific ethics and moral responsibility).

Among other notable episodes, "Phage" strikes a nice balance among character development, story hook, and moral and emotional conflict when Neelix is literally robbed of his lungs by the Vidiians, a once-civilized people who are combating a deadly disease called the Phage by stealing organs. (The disease would return in "Faces," a fine showcase for Roxann Biggs-Dawson as Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres.) "Emanations" stirred controversy among the series' producers and some fans for its philosophical look at death, and "Time and Again" is a unique time-travel story in which Janeway and Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) get caught in a subspace fracture that places them just hours before they know a planet is going to be destroyed. In "Prime Factors," latent tensions among Voyager personnel erupts into serious conflict, an issue revisited in the season finale, "Learning Curve." Despite a pat ending that resolves the Maquis conflict much too easily, the episode drives home the fact that Voyager and its crew are all alone, making the most of a difficult predicament. --Tom Keogh and Jeff Shannon

As i have always maintained Season 1 of voyager is the most boring star trek season of all of them. it might not be what everyone might be thinking however i recommend season 1 so you know how season 2 works out.

Certain characters and races/organizations you might not be aware of if you have never watched TNG or DS9 but you have watched VOY, are listed below:

Federation, Cardassians, Kazon, Bajorans, Ocampans, Talaxians, Marquis
Quark, Morn, Q

Before going any further I think it is worth noting that this review is not aimed at Voyager fans, who will buy it regardless of any comments. It is intended for Voyager newcomers and the basic message is -- forget being linear. If you want to see what Voyager is really like, buy seasons 3, 4 or 5 first!

Season one of ST:Voyager is a very mixed bag - from the promising to the horribly forgettable or disappointing. Voyager had a much longer teething period than either TNG or DS9 and considering the premise, did very little to push the Star Trek boundaries in its first year. Rather than approaching the show with great drama and conflict, or even with a sense of isolation the first season seemed wrapped in a candy cocoon and its stories were far too similar to TNG.

Amongst its stand-out episodes were 'Caretaker' (a promising pilot), 'Eye of the Needle' (a brilliant episode which explored the ships isolation and lust to return home), 'State of Flux' (great episode establishing the Voyager traitor) and 'Learning Curve' (another maquis episode but impressive nonetheless).

Overall, the first season of Voyager is bright, sparky and new - much like its young and inexperienced crew - but falters on its feet a number of times. It doesn't quite establish itself in this short season but does a commendable job of setting up a ship of characters which you should come to love within a few seasons time.
That doesn't change my recommendation though - spend your money on the later seasons first [3 is a good place to start] and later, once you love the show enough, see how it all began with this short but most expensive season's introduction to the Voyager crew.

'Slimline' refers to the packaging of the DVDs, rather than to their content.

However, the carton does state "Some episodes may be edited from their original network versions."

So like The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine the slimline version of voyager rolls around.
Season 1 is by far Voyager's weakest season with the show in its teething period trying to establish itself but some of the scripts just seem like cast-offs from TNG or DS9
The stand out epsiodes this first season are the feature lenght pilot 'caretaker', the organ harvesting aliens in 'the phage' and a double agent amongst the crew in 'state of flux', not to say that the other episodes are bad just not very memorable.
The show improves in season 2 before coming into its own in season 3.
This boxset is also only five discs as opposed to the other seven disc voyager boxsets, with only sixteen epsiodes instead of twenty-six spread over four discs and the fifth disc housing the special features.
The box itself is roughly the size of a video taking up little space unlike the previous chunky box release this is the version to get but wait until it drops in price a little to get better value for your money